Single Letter

HAM/1/6/8/9

Letter from John Hope to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


      As Mr: Wye's Servant did not
deliver me Miʃs Hamilton's Note 'till this
morning at Breakfaʃt, it was not in my
power to obey her Commands before. --
      These are all the Letters of the Chriʃtian
I thought worth the keeping. -- The Others
being only a temporary Criticiʃm on a
late Publication, I have destroy'd. -- As I
ʃuppose Miʃs Hamilton is too well con=
=firm'd
in the Principles of her Religion,
ever to be converted to my Faith, I do not
apprehend -- ʃhe runs any riʃk of being
ʃtagger'd in her Belief, by a ʃecond peruʃal
of Opinions on little else than the Form
of our Public prayers. -- I should otherwise
not have ʃent them, -- for, (besides that it is
not my Profeʃsion to make Converts,) when
onepeople change their Tenets, it ought to be
entirely by the ʃtrength of their own
Underʃtanding, or they will by the change endanger their
future Peace of Mind. -- I was glad to
hear by Thomas (whom I met this morning)
that Mrs: & Miʃs Hamilton were well.[1]

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Notes


 1. The letter ends abruptly here and the bottom of the page looks as though it may have been cut away.

Normalised Text


      As Mr: Wye's Servant did not
deliver me Miss Hamilton's Note till this
morning at Breakfast, it was not in my
power to obey her Commands before. --
      These are all the Letters of the Christian
I thought worth the keeping. -- The Others
being only a temporary Criticism on a
late Publication, I have destroyed. -- As I
suppose Miss Hamilton is too well confirmed
in the Principles of her Religion,
ever to be converted to my Faith, I do not
apprehend -- she runs any risk of being
staggered in her Belief, by a second perusal
of Opinions on little else than the Form
of our Public prayers. -- I should otherwise
not have sent them, -- for, (besides that it is
not my Profession to make Converts,) when
people change their Tenets, it ought to be
entirely by the strength of their own
Understanding, or they will by the change endanger their
future Peace of Mind. -- I was glad to
hear by Thomas (whom I met this morning)
that Mrs: & Miss Hamilton were well.

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quotations,
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 1. The letter ends abruptly here and the bottom of the page looks as though it may have been cut away.

Metadata

Library References

Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from John Hope to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/6/8/9

Correspondence Details

Sender: John Hope

Place sent: Northampton (certainty: high)

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Northampton (certainty: medium)

Date sent: between 1773 and 1774
notBefore 1773 (precision: medium)
notAfter 1774 (precision: medium)

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from John Hope to Mary Hamilton, concerning writing and religion. Hope notes that Mr Wye’s servant did not deliver Hamilton’s note until that morning and hence it was not in his power to obey her commands earlier. He writes that these are all the 'Letters of the Christian I thought worth the keeping. The Others being only a temporary Criticism on a late Publication, I have destroy[e]d'. Hope notes that Hamilton is too 'well confirmed in the Principles of her Religion ever to be converted to my Faith'. He assumes that he does not run the risk of converting her beliefs by a second set of views 'on little else than the Form of Public Prayers' else he would not have sent them her as it is not his 'Profession to make converts'. When people change their tenets than they should do so independently otherwise there is a risk that it will affect their future peace of mind'.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 172 words

Transliteration Information

Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers' (Hannah Barker, Sophie Coulombeau, David Denison, Tino Oudesluijs, Cassandra Ulph, Christine Wallis & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2019-2023).

All quotation marks are retained in the text and are represented by appropriate Unicode characters. Words split across two lines may have a hyphen on the first, the second or both fragments (reco-|ver, imperfect|-ly, satisfacti-|-on); or a double hyphen (pur=|port, dan|=ger, qua=|=litys); or none (respect|ing). Any point in abbreviations with superscripted letter(s) is placed last, regardless of relative left-right orientation in the original. Thus, Mrs. or Mrs may occur, but M.rs or Mr.s do not.

Acknowledgements: Transcription and XML version created as part of project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers', funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under grant AH/S007121/1.

Transliterator: Cassandra Ulph, editorial team (completed 20 August 2020)

Cataloguer: Lisa Crawley, Archivist, The John Rylands Library

Cataloguer: John Hodgson, Head of Special Collections, John Rylands Research Institute and Library

Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors

Revision date: 6 January 2022

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